Math is the area of knowledge that involves the study of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistic and calculus, in search of the systematization of quantities, measures, spaces, structures and variations. THE math word is originated from the greek μ? θημα (mathema), which, in free translation, means “what can be learned”.
Lookalso:Alan Turing, the mathematician considered the father of computing
This is an extremely useful branch of knowledge for the resolutioninproblems, whether everyday or technical-scientific. Mathematical practice consists in the search for standards, which are used to formulate hypotheses or conjectures. For this, the math is based on postulates, also known as axioms, which are nothing more than statements taken as fact.
Areas of Mathematics
Currently, and for didactic purposes, Basic Mathematics, part of the curriculum of basic education, is usually divided into the following areas:
Arithmetic: is the area that studies numbers, as well as the operations between them. It is the oldest branch of mathematics.
Algebra: studies the manipulation of unknowns, inserted into equations and other algebraic forms.
Trigonometry: study the trigonometric functions and investigates the relationships between the angular measurements of triangles.
- Geometry: it is the study of the spatial dimensions of geometric figures, such as area and volume.
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history of mathematics
The oldest records indicate that mathematics has been part of our history since times prehistoric. At that time, the need to relate the number of animals in the herd, for example, or the amount of some resource with other objects, such as stones or marks made from pieces of bone or wood.
the beginning of Old age was marked by the emergence of writing and the development of many civilizations, such as the Egyptians, mesopotamians, Hebrews, greeks and Romans. The Egyptians, for example, were the first to use mathematics, around 1500 BC. Ç. They even created a systeminnumbering, that was used by other civilizations. The Romans even based themselves on the Egyptian numerical system to create a new way of counting, with this, they were able to represent many more numbers than the existing counting systems.
The first studies of arithmetic emerged in Greek schools at the hands of great philosophers, such as Pythagoras, Miletus Tales and Plato. Other big names like Euclid, Apollonius and Archimedes, were essential for the development of geometry.
In the Middle Ages, the Arabic numbering system was implemented in the West, and numbers were written in the way we know them today. At that time, algebra started to be used to solve different types of problems, as well as being used with the geometry.
At the centuryXVII, Mathematics went through a period revolutionary, because important tools emerged, such as the logarithms, O Cartesian plane, calculations of odds and also the calculationinfinitesimal, developed by the English physicist Isaac Newton.
In recent centuries, some important mathematical problems have been solved. The demonstration of the theoreminFermat and the solution to the problem of conjecturessphericalinPoincare.
In the nineteenth century, important studies in the area of spacesvectors. the mathematician JamesClerkMaxwell, for example, unified the equationsdifferentials of electromagnetism. In the 20th century, it was time to Albert Einstein develop your calculations of general relativity and restricted, Starting at Maxwell's equations and also from the transformationsinLorentz. Since then, physicists have learned to describe almost all of nature's interactions through a large set of differential equations, known as standard model.
Currently, many advances in mathematics have emerged from the study of Prime numbers. This has been possible thanks to the work of brilliant mathematicians around the world and also the development of more advanced computers, capable of solving extensive calculations in ever shorter times.
Read too: 7 questions still unanswered by Physics
What is math for?
Mathematics permeates most areas of knowledge, especially the sciences of nature and the sciences applied, how the engineering. Applied mathematics allows the elaboration of statistics that aid in the understanding of phenomena biological, physicists, chemicals and even social, whose analysis is complex and It dependsinmanyvariables.
The development of mathematics allowed the construction of models that explain how nature works. It is from the mathematical language that the gravity, a electricity, you phenomenaelectromagnetic etc.
In addition to the fundamental role it plays within the sciences, mathematics is also extremely necessary for the solution of problemseveryday. Time counting, spending control, splitting and grouping things into different sets, for example, they are skills developed throughout life that are only possible when we study and come to understand the math.
By M.e Rafael Helerbrock
Physics teacher